Mambo Italiano (thing)

This 2003 indie film is kind of like My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but with Italians and gay men. Which means some will find its ethnic humour hilarious and its message uplifting, and others will be deeply offended. I lean more towards the former.

Based on a play of the same name by Steve Gallucio, this quirky comedy was written and directed by Quebecois playwright Émile Gaudreault (who co-wrote Edtv). It concerns Angelo Barberini, a young gay man whose parents Gino (Paul Sorvino) and Maria (Ginette Reno) emigrated to Montreal by mistake. (They didn't realize that there were two Americas: the real one, the United States, and the fake one, Canada; or that there were two Canadas: the real one, Ontario; and the fake one, Quebec.) They live in Montreal's Little Italy with their two grown children, Angelo and Anna. Angelo shocks his parents by refusing to get married and then moving out on his own. But all that is nothing when he reveals that his roommate and childhood friend, policeman Nino, is actually his lover. All hell breaks lose, for Angelo's family don't know how to deal with the shocking news and Nino is fundamentally unprepared to step out of his closet.

This is in many ways a predictable little movie, full of Italian stereotypes which could be massively cringe-inducing, but it's rendered interesting by witty dialogue, decent acting, and surrealistically lurid sets. The Barberini's home is all clashing gilt wallpaper and ornate draperies; Angelo seems to have an endless supply of headache-inducing patterned polyester shirts; and the travel agency where he works looks like nothing so much as a cheap computer school furnished with lime green homemade desks. Sorvino and Reno are particularly good in their roles as immigrant parents, arguing and egging each other on, and Mary Walsh does a funny turn as Nino's mother, though her Italian accent is unconvincing, in sharp contrast to theirs. Anna, Angelo's neurotic sister, is believable as she struggles to get out of her parents' house in the absence of a prospective groom, and the relatively unknown actors who play Angelo and Nino are quite convincing in their roles.

This is a light little movie that makes for a pleasant evening's viewing.